The west Londoners first appeared in the F A cup in 1897, reaching the first round in 1904 as a Southern League club. The Cottagers first met top flight opposition the following year, defeating Nottingham Forest and went on to gain league status in 1907. Their greatest moment as a lower tier club came in 1936 when Derby were swept aside at Craven Cottage while Fulham went from strength to strength after he war and reached the big time in 1949. Oddly it was as a second tier club that Fulham reached their only cup final in 1975, going down to an Alan Taylor brace against West Ham. The club spent the rest of the 20th Century moving between the second and fourth tiers of the game before rejoining the elite in 2002 where the Thamesiders have spent most of their time since.
Magic Moments
1905
1-0 vs Nottingham Forest
Second round: 18th February 1905
Scorer: Willie Wardrope
Ranked at the time: 33
Today: outside the top 400
1908
3-1 vs Manchester City
Third round replay: Wednesday 26th February 1908
Attendance: 38,000
Scorers: Harry Ross, Fred Harrison, Bob Dalrymple
Ranked at the time: 19
Today: Outside the top 200
1908
2-1 vs Manchester United
Quarter final: 7th March 1908
Attendance: 45,000
Scorers: Fred Harrison {2}
Ranked at the time: 10
Today: Outside the top 100
1912
3-0 Liverpool
Second round: 3rd February 1912
Attendance: 36,000
Scorers: Tim Coleman, Bert Pearce
Ranked at the time: 87
Today: Outside the top 500
Team: 1:Arthur Reynolds, 2:Ted Charlton, 3:Jimmy Sharp, 4:Alf Marshall, 5:Fred Maven, 6:Wattie White, 7:Jim Smith, 8:Tim Coleman, 9:Bert Pearce, 10:Arthur Brown, 11:Willie Walker
1921
1-0 vs Blackburn Rovers
First round replay: Thursday January 13th 1921
{Left: Donald Cock gets between the Rover's full backs but keeper Sewell proves equal to this effort}
Attendance: 23,000
Scorers: Billy McDonald {65}
Ranked at the time:111
Team:
1:Arthur Reynolds, 2:Ted Worrall, 3:Alec Chaplin, 4:Harry Bagge, 5:Jimmy Torrance, 6:Joe Edelston, 7:Billy McDonald, 8:Billy Banks, 9:Donald Cock, 10:William Hall, 11:Frank Penn
1926
1-0 vs Everton
Third round replay: Thursday January 14th 1926
Attendance: 20,176
Scorer: Bert White
Ranked at the time: 96
Today: Outside the top 300
Team: 1: Ernie Beecham, 2:Reg Dyer, 3:Alec Chaplin, 4:Len Oliver, 5:Jock McNab, 6:Bert Barrett, 7:Jack Harris, 8:Teddy Craig, 9:Bert White, 10:Eddie Edmonds, 11:Frank Penn
1926
3-1 vs Liverpool
Fourth round: Saturday January 30th 1926
Attendance: 36,381
Scorers: Albert Pape, Frank Penn
Ranked at the time: 69
Today: Outside the top 200
Team: 1:Ernie Beecham, 2:Reg Dyer, 3:Billy Probert, 4:Len Oliver, 5:Jock McNab, 6:?, 7:Jack Harris, 8:Teddy Craig, 9:Albert Pape, 10:Bert Barrett, 11:Frank Penn
1926
1-0 @ Notts County
Fifth round: Saturday February 20th 1926
Attendance: 28,000
Scorer: Bill Prouse
Ranked at the time: 130
{Image: Ernie Beecham is grounded by a County forward but a dark shirted Fulham defender is on hand to clear}
Team: 1:Ernie Beecham, 2:Reg Dyer, 3:?, 4:Len Olliver, 5:Jock McNab, 6:?, 7:Jack Harris, 8:Teddy Craig, 9:Bill Prouse, 10:Albert Pape, 11:?
3-2 Chelsea
Fifth Round Replay: Monday February 24th 1936
Attendance: 30,696
Scorers: Trevor Smith, Jim Hammond, Johnny Arnold
Ranked at the time: 223
Team: 1:Alf Tootill, 2:Jimmy Hindson, 3:Mike Keeping, 4:Bert Barrett, 5:Syd Gibbons, 6:Jimmy Tompkins, 7:Jack Finch, 8:Trevor Smith, 9:Eddie Perry, 10:Jim Hammond, 11:Johnny Arnold
Quarter Final: Saturday February 29th 1936
Attendance: 37,151
Scorers: Johnny Arnold, Bert Barrett, Trevor Smith
Ranked at the time:19
Today: still in the top 70
Team: 1:Alf Tootill, 2:Jimmy Hindson, 3:Mike Keeping, 4:Bert Barrett, 5:Syd Gibbons, 6:Jimmy Tompkins, 7:Finch, 8:Trevor Smith, 9:Eddie Perry, 10:Jim Hammond, 11:Johnny Arnold
4-1 @ Sunderland
Third Round: Saturday January 4th 1969
Attendance: 27,091
Scorers: Brendan Mullan {2}, Stan Brown, Johnny Haynes
Ranked at the time: 110
Team: 1:Brian Williamson, 2:John Ryan, 3:Fred Callaghan, 4:Stan Brown, 5:Frank Large, 6:Reg Matthewson, 7:Les Barrett, 8:Brendan Mullan, 9:Steve Earle, 10:Johnny Haynes, 11:Tarry Parmenter
2017
4-1 vs Hull City
Third round replay: Tuesday January 17th 2017
Attendance: 9,054
Scorer: {Albion} Nathan Arnold {90 +1}
Ranked at the time: 140
After six years of struggle at Sincil Bank, in which relegation to the sixth tier had loomed large several times, things were looking up again
for Lincoln fans as their team seemed to be marching towards the National League title and a return to the Football League. A trip to inconsistent Championship side, Ipswich in the third round of the cup offered a chance of a bit of extra icing on the cake for a side clearly brimming with confidence. 5,000 Imps fans made the trip to Portman Road, intent on a good old fashioned cup day out and got just that when Theo Robinson deservedly set up a possible cup shock not once but twice in a topsy turvey afternoon when a lacklustre home side salvaged a replay four minutes from time.
The 2-2 draw set up a live televised replay for the Imps at Sincil bank with over 9,000 fans packing into the ground for an evening that was also tinged with sadness. In the days between the cup tie and replay, Lincoln's legendary former manager, Graham Taylor passed away at the age of seventy-two. The future England Manager began his management career at Sincil Bank and was still the last man to take the club into the fourth round of the cup forty-one years early. Fitting then that, on the night the club paid tribute to Taylor, the men of 2017 emulated his 1976 team in impressive style. On a night when Mick McCarthy's Ipswich side were simply awful, Lincoln repeatedly failed to turn their dominance into goals with Dean Gerken producing one fantastic first half save when it seemed certain the deadlock would be broken.
That stop set up a tense finish as a rare Ipswich attack resulted in a dangerous free kick as the game ticked into stoppage time with all in
the stadium and watching on TV feeling that a goal now would be cruel to deny the Non-League side an extra half hour, not to mention an unexpected late night for the BBC's News at Ten team. The Championship side threw extra bodies forward in the hope of achieving just that but when the poorly effected set piece broke to Adam Marriott he suddenly found himself deep in his own half but with just one blue shirt between he and the Ipswich goal. With a hopelessly exposed Ipswich defence desperately trying to get back into position, Marriott showed great composure to not race on himself, instead checking his own break before laying a great through ball to Nathan Arnold who equally calmly rounded the defenceless Gerken before slotting into the empty net to clinch the victory and a fourth round tie against Championship high flyers, Brighton.
Lincoln: 1: Paul Farman, 2: Bradley Wood, 5: Luke Waterfall, 25: Sean Raggett, 3: Sam Habergham, 28: Nathan Arnold {Replaced by 7: Jack Muldoon 90 +3}, 30: Alex Wodyard, 8: Alan Power, 11: Terry Hawkridge {Replaced by 27: Jamie McCombe 90 +5}, 31: Theo Robinson {Replaced by 10: Adam Marriott 80}, 9: Matt Rhead. {Manager: Danny Cowley}
Fourth Round: Sunday January 29th 2017
Attendance: 15,143
Scorers: Sone Aluko, Chris Martin, Ryan Sessegnon, Stefan Johansen
Ranked at the time: 579
Team: 1:Marcus Bettinelli, 30:Ryan Sessignon, 13:Tim Ream, 26:Tomas Kalas, 4:Denis Odoi, 6:Kevin McDonald, 14:Stefan Johansen, 24:Sone Aluko {Replaced by 11:Floyd Ayite 80}, 10:Tom Cairney {Replaced by 2:Ryan Fredericks 88}, 20:Lucas Piazon, 25:Chris Martin {Replaced by 33:Athanasios Petsos 83} {Manager: Slavisa Jokanovic}